I suppose I am just venting here...the books have now been remailed.

My driver just left two books I'd mailed in my mailbox, each stickered with the notices about how they were being returned to me because stamped items over 13 oz had to be handed over in person.  My husband had dropped them in a blue box on his way to work.  These went to a major PO in Charleston, WV, not my little rural town PO, where I never ever have a problem.

One weighed 9 oz and the other 11.5, confirmed at my back woods PO and the stickers removed and the stamps cancelled. 

What annoys me is the 9.5 mile drive, each way, to my PO to remail what never should have been returned.  One carrier in the office said they had just seen a training film on this and maybe someone just hefted them and assumed. 

Another reason, I suppose, to go with the PBS printed postage.  I figured that at just under $4 a gallon for gas, it cost me much more today to mail them than what PBS charges in fees.

That sucks. I always write the weight on the packages that I blue box or APC so that there no confusion. I think some of them just get all excited about a new rule they can enforce and go crazy on it.

Bonnie, the same thing has happened to me a few times, as well as books I brought into the post office and handed to the clerk being returned with stickers on them!!!  It's infuriating, isn't it?    Also recently had a book with APC postage returned.  It wouldn't be so bad if they at least apologized when I brought them in again, they just look at you like "so what?"  I know all post office employees are not like this, but we seem to have some really bad ones here!

Thanks for your responses.  Diane, I understand what you mean about the employees.  The postmaster herself gets it.  She knows her job.  Even the delivery lady who was in there today does.  But the guy at the window is a sub, and by his own admission, baffled by a lot of this.  I had already waited 15 minutes while he tried so hard to fix something that went wrong for the lady in front of me.  And then he kept trying to tell me why he thought they were returned to me.  He didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about.  He thought because my stamps were not cancelled the books came back. 

No, no...I want YOU to cancel them now.  You see...it's like this...

Thank goodness for that driver.  She got it, and told him, accept it and cancel the stamps.

So, again, I say, after the mileage and the time, PBS fees for postage are cheap!

Sometimes I think that postal workers don't want to deal with stamps at all.

I wish we could get people to at least understand the basic rules and follow them. I am still working on training the new postmaster here about this rule. He just will not listen and believe me that PC postage does not need returned if it was placed in the collection box. It gets frustrating!

Patti, the new postmaster doesn't get it?  Cheesh!

I use the printed postage on anything over 10oz just incase. I'd rather pay the postage fee than have to drag 3 kids to the post office to deal with a book getting returned.

All of this thread makes me glad that almost all of the clerks in Lincoln at about 4-5 PO's here that I use plus one in Omaha I occasionally use ar e very friendly and mostly admire all of the various stamps that I attach to my packages---many of which I have bought off of Ebay---often without gum and for <face value.  They go through the routine of weighing stuff etc., as they are supposed to, but I am almost never wrong on the amounts of postage, and I think that amazes several of the clerks.   Many of them call me by name now---having sent out >3000 books at this point, they nearly all know me.

Should any of you have the opportunity to order and receive books found on Winston's shelf, you'll be amazed at the wide variety of stamps he uses!!